another; and unregenerate men hate God (Jer. xliv. 4; Rom. vii. 15; Ps. xxxiv. 21; Rom. i. 30). God hated the Jewish new-moons, and feasts, and sacrifices, and solemn assemblies, on account of the unholy spirit and sinful manner in which they were observed (Is. i. 13, 14). 2. To want love to persons: so God hated Esau; he did not elect him to everlasting life, he did not choose his seed to be his peculiar people, nor shew saving kindness to him, or to many of them (Mal. i. 3; Rom. ix. 13). A parent hates his child-i.e., wants proper love to it-when he forbears to give it due correction for its real good. 3. To love far less ardently (Gen. xxix. 30, 31). So sometimes the Jews had a hated and a beloved wife (Deut. xxi. 15). We must hate father and mother in comparison of Christthat is, must love them far less than him (Luke xiv. 26). It is the same idea as is conveyed in Matt. x. 37: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.' In the literal acceptation of the term, the teaching of Christ does not permit us to hate any one, not even an enemy, much less a parent, to whom it exacts all due respect and affection (Mark vii.rior race in the country; their sheikhs and 9-13).

| rial. The doors are generally plain thick slabs, fixed into their sockets at the time the houses were built. The roofs are constructed on a very curious principle; a handsome arch, springing at once from the ground, is thrown across every large room; small slabs of stone are laid on the wall above it, projecting a short distance on both sides; and on these again are laid other slabs, much longer, well cut, and closely united, which form the ceiling; while the smaller, on which they rest, resemble plain cornices, the outer angles being smoothed away.

The view over the Hauran is at all times striking; at sunset, especially from an elevation, extremely beautiful. To the south-east it is boundless.

The soil, I said, was excellent. Numerous corn-fields surround every village, while other districts serve merely for pasturage, and are grazed by the flocks of the Bedouins.

'The majority of the villagers are, I believe, Arabs; but we visited many towns exclusively inhabited by Druses, kindred to those of Mount Lebanon. They seemed by far the most supe

elderly men were always well-often handsomely-drest; and their women neatness itself, in their veils of white, pendent from a silver horn projecting from the forehead. It is still the principal ornament of the fair sex, Christian as well as Druse, in Mount Lebanon' (Lindsay, Letters on Egypt, etc., ii. 131, 132).

HAU'RAN, a district of country to the east of the Jordan, mentioned by Ezekiel (xlvii. 16, 18), and which still goes by that name. Its boundaries have probably varied at different times, and appear not to be well defined. The name Hauran is at present applied by those at 'Hospitality to strangers,' says Burckhardt, a distance to the whole country east of Jaulan is a characteristic common to the Arabs and and Jeidur. By the people of that country, to the people of the Hauran. A traveller may however, it is used in a much more restricted alight at any house he pleases; a mat will be sense, and is given only to the fertile plain on immediately spread for him, coffee made, and a the south of the Lejah, with the narrow stripe breakfast or dinner set before him. In entering on the west. The whole of this district is per- a village it has often happened to me that fectly flat, with little conical fells at intervals. several persons presented themselves, each begThe soil is the most fertile in Syria, and admir- ging that I would lodge at his house; and this ably adapted to the production of wheat. Not hospitality is not confined to the traveller hima tree is anywhere to be seen. There are many self-his horse or his camel is also fed; but these inhabited villages, and many more in ruins. are apt to be insufficiently fed. It is a point of Eshmiskin, a large village about six miles south-honour with the host never to accept of the west of Edhran is the present capital, and the residence of the chief sheikh, The ruins of Busrah are much more extensive than those of any other city in this province (Porter, Jour. Sac. Lit. July 1854, pp. 301-303).

According to Burckhardt, who uses the word in a more extensive sense, the Hauran comprises part of Trichonitis and Ituræa, the whole of Auranitis and the northern districts of Batanæa or Bashan. It is inhabited in the present day by Turks, Druses, Christians, and Arabs, and is visited in spring and summer by several Arab tribes from the desert (Burckhardt, Trav. Syria, 290).

'The Hauran,' says Lord Lindsay, 'is an immense plain, very rich and fertile, sometimes slightly undulating, sometimes flat as a pancake, with here and there low rounded hills. The plain is covered in every direction with Roman towns built of black basalt, some of them mere heaps of rubbish, others still almost perfect; the Arab belladeen (villagers) dwelling under the same stone roof as the old Romans; stone doors and stone roofs, owing to the want of timber in the Hauran, which obliged the colonists to employ the more durable mate

'A

smallest return from a guest. I once only ven-
tured to give a few piastres to the child of a
very poor family at Zahouet, by whom we had
been most hospitably treated, and rode off with-
out attending to the cries of the mother, who
insisted on my taking back the money.'
man of the Hauran, intending to travel about
for a fortnight, never thinks of putting a single
para in his pocket; he is sure of being every-
where well received, and of living better, per-
haps, than at his own home. A man remark-
able for his hospitality and generosity enjoys
the highest consideration among them.'

The instructions of our Lord to his disciples (Matt. x. 9-11) have the appearance of savouring of improvidence, and fallacious conclusions have sometimes been drawn from them; but there can be little doubt they were founded on the customs of the country at the time, and which, it appears, still prevail in the country east of the Jordan. [BASHAN.]

HAV'ILAH, a district of country encompassed by the Pison, one of the four rivers into which the river that came out of the garden of Eden parted (Gen. ii. 10, 11); but as we are

277

Pharaoh having obstinately persisted in re- | years. The passage, accordingly, is not to be fusing to let the Israelites go, the Lord visited understood of the time the children of Israel the Egyptians with a succession of terrible dwelt in Egypt, but of the time they were plagues, and at length the death of their first- sojourners-i.e., from the time when Abraham born caused him to yield; but they had not entered Canaan as a sojourner, when that land advanced far on their journey when he repented was granted to his seed in promise (comp. Gen. of having let them depart, and he made ready xii. 5, 7 with Gal. iii. 15-18). The fact is, that his chariot, and took his people with him; and according to the common chronology, precisely he took 600 chosen chariots and all the chariots one-half of the period had passed when Jacob of Egypt,' and 'pursued after them, and over- went down to Egypt (see Gen. xii. 4; xxi. 5; took them encamping by the Red Sea.' Moses xxv. 26; xlvii. 9); so that the time which his having stretched out his hand over the sea, 'the posterity dwelt in that country was, strictly Lord caused the sea to go back, and made the speaking, only 215 years. How long the Israelsea dry land, and the waters were divided; and ites were in an oppressed condition in Egypt we the children of Israel went into the midst of the are not able to say. So long as Joseph lived, sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were which was fully seventy years, they were probably a wall unto them on their right hand and on well enough treated. The change in their treattheir left.' Thus they passed in safety to the ment was after his death. It was when a king opposite shore. The Egyptians having pursued arose who knew not Joseph;' but how long after them into the midst of the sea, Moses this was after his death is not said. It might again stretched forth his hand over the sea, and not be immediately. The oppression of the 'the waters returned and covered the chariots Israelites had already risen to a great height and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh, when Moses was born. This was eighty years and overthrew them in the midst of the sea; before the exodus, previous to which their opthere remained not so much as one of them' pression was greatly aggravated. (xii. 29-34, 37; xiv. 5-9, 21-28).

The length of time the children of Israel passed in Egypt is a question of some chronological importance. Moses says: Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.' This passage has often been misunderstood. Here the words 'who dwelt in Egypt,' are obviously descriptive of the children of Israel, and are not to be interpreted as connected with the words sojourning or four hundred and thirty

Josephus gives the following account of the condition of the Israelites in Egypt; but as he often uses considerable freedom with the statements of the Hebrew scriptures, it may be questioned whether it is not merely his version of the narrative of Moses:

"The Egyptians became very ill-affected towards the Hebrews, as touched with envy at their prosperity; for when they saw how the nation of the Israelites flourished and were become eminent already in plenty of wealth, which they had acquired by their virtue and natural love of labour, they thought this increase was to their own detriment. And having in length of time forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river and hinder its waters from stagnating upon its running over its own banks. They set them also to build pyramids, and by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labour. And four hundred years did they spend under these afflictions; for they strove one against the other which should get the mastery, the Egyptians desiring to destroy the Israelites by these labours, and the Israelites desiring to hold out to the end under them' (Antiq. ii. 9. 1).

It was doubtless with some great and special design that God brought the children of Israel down to Egypt, and that he kept them there for so long a time as upwards of two centuries. We do not recollect any explanation which has been given of this singular act of the divine providence. We cannot, however, help thinking that it might be to prepare them for their settlement in Canaan in a national capacity. The fathers of the race, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also his sons, had led chiefly the life of shepherds (Gen. xlvi. 31-34; xlvii. 3), and may consequently be supposed to have been little acquainted with even the common yet necessary arts of settled life. Now, Egypt was a country in which they might learn these to greater advantage than perhaps in any other country of the world at that period. Though not the cradle of the human family, it had even from a very early period made great advances in the usages and arts of civilised life. There was an established and settled government; there were cities, towns, and villages; and some of those works were probably already in existence which to this day are the wonder of the world. Agriculture and many other branches of industry were common among them. In Egypt the Israelites must have had opportunities of learning much; and they doubtless did learn much. It is said of Moses that he was

learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' (Acts vii. 22). The works which they executed in the wilderness, as the casting of the golden calf; the erection of the tabernacle; its hangings of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-work;' the cutting and engraving of the precious stones in the breastplate of the high-priest; and even the garments of the priest 'for glory and for beauty,' are proofs of the knowledge and skill which were found among them of some even of the less ordinary arts of life. Had it not been for the training which they received in Egypt they would probably have been quite unprepared for entering on life in a national capacity in Canaan.

Notwithstanding the oppression to which the

HEBREWS

6

279

HEBREWS

Israelites were subjected during the latter period | though doubtless they were under a despotic
of their abode in Egypt, they had multiplied government.
greatly. About 1706 B.C. they came down to
Egypt in number seventy souls (Gen. xlvi. 27);
now, in 1491 B.C., a distance of 215 years, there
set out on their journey from Rameses about
600,000 on foot that were men, beside children;
and a mixed multitude went up also with
them; and flocks and herds, even very much
cattle (Exod. xii. 37, 38),-circumstances
which do not well correspond with the idea of
their having been previously a nation of slaves,

Tribes.

Reuben...
Simeon

In the Book of Numbers we have twice a census of the Israelites-the one taken in the wilderness of Sinai not much more than a year after they came out of Egypt; the other taken in the plains of Moab shortly before they entered Canaan. Both were only of the males from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel' (Num. i. 1-3; xxvi. 1-4). The following table shews the results of the two enumerations :

Increase.

Decrease.

First Census.

Second Census.

2,770

59,300

22,200

37,100

Gad

45,650

40,500

5,150

Judah

74,600

76,500

1,900

Issachar

54,400

64,300

9,900

Zebulun..

57,400

60,500

3,100

Manasseh

32,200

52,700

20,500

Ephraim

40,500

32,500

8,000

Benjamin.

35,400

45,600

10,200

Dan...

62,700

64,400

1,700

Asher

41,500

53,500

11,900

Naphtali

53,400

45,400

8,000

Levites*

22,000

23,000

1,000

61,020

If to these numbers we add the females from 'twenty years old and upward,' constituting, it is likely, a somewhat larger number; and the numbers under the ages stated, the whole would probably not be under 2,400,000.

In the course of the following forty years the
numbers should, according to the ordinary laws
of population, have increased considerably, but
instead of this there was by the second census a
slight decrease. It is, however, to be recollected
that the whole of those above the age of twenty
who came out of Egypt must, at the time of the
second census, have perished in the wilderness,
agreeably to the punishment denounced upon
them for their murmurings (Num. xiv. 26-36);
while in the ordinary course of nature many of
them would have been still living at the end of
forty years. Besides, fewer children would per-
haps be born, and more, both old and young,
would probably die, were it for nothing else
than the privations and the hardships which
they suffered in the wilderness. Still, however,
it is somewhat remarkable that the total num-
bers should at both periods be so nearly the
same, while the increase in some tribes and the
decrease in others should be so great as com-
pared with one another.

It is also somewhat remarkable that though
the twelve sons of Jacob probably became hus-
bands at an age and under circumstances not
materially different from each other, the number
of their descendants, when they came out of
Egypt, should have differed so much from one
another; and further, that in the course of

their sojournings in the wilderness some tribes should have materially increased, while others should have so greatly decreased, and that the have differed so much from each other. Perproportions of both increase and decrease should some fell more heavily on some tribes than on haps in the judgments inflicted upon them others.

war.

It is also not unworthy of remark that the on both occasions would indicate that the normal description of the persons included in the census They are described as 'from twenty years condition of the Israelites was then a state of war in Israel' (Num. i. 3). This had doubtless and upward, all that were able to go forth to some reference to the conquest of Cannan; but even in after-times this appears to have been very much the condition of Israel.

Under the leadership of Moses the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, and after While he was still with them they forty years they reached the borders of the promised land. conquered the country on the east of the Jordan, the kingdoms of Sihon, king of the Amorites, These he divided between the tribes of Reuben and of Og, king of Bashan (Num. xxi. 21-35). and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (xxxii. over the Jordan to what was specially called 1-5, 33). He was not permitted by God to go the land of Canaan; but after being favoured with a view of it from the top of Pisgah, he Under the command of Joshua the Israelites died in the land of Moab (Deut. xxxiv. 1-6). now passed over the Jordan, and entered on the

The Levites were numbered from a month old and upwards, yet, with a single exception in the second census, they were by much the smallest of all the tribes.

conquest of the land of Canaan. This, it is com- | established in the family of David; but through monly calculated, occupied them six years; but though the land then rested from war, there remained yet very much land to be possessed' (Josh. xi. 23; xiii. 1). The country was divided among the other nine tribes and a half; but many of the Canaanites remained unconquered, and long maintained their place in the country, they and the Israelites in some instances dwelling together (xiii. 2-7; Judg. i. iii. 1-7; 2 Sam. v. 6-8).